Wednesday, November 18, 2009

My Olympus XA

Both my parents love photography and I grew up around cameras. My parents took most of our childhood pictures on an Olympus XA rangefinder camera. I remember this camera was a precious item in our household. My dad bought it from one of his photographer friends in the early 1980's.
In the last few years my parents have moved on to digital photography and I am starting to inherit all the awesome film gear. Recently, my Mom gave me this Olympus and I have been shooting with it regularly. I feel guilty for letting my DSLR collect dust on my shelf.
My style of photography totally changes when I am taking pictures with a film camera. I can't do any test shots to quickly check my exposure or to see how light is falling on my subject. I have to think much more and it is really fun to go lo-fi once in a while.


Grandriver, Lansing
This is a picture of Grand River (Lansing, MI) about a block away from my apartment.


Jamaica Palace
This is Eric at an incredible Jamaican restaurant in Lansing. They blast Jamaican music all day.


Light leak
I had to open the back of the camera in a (not so dark) room. This was an unexpected result. The light leak is perfectly over the manhole.

5 comments:

ecomarci said...

I really like the manhole picture!

-marci

Esperanzita said...

Maybe it wasn't a light leak, maybe it was Juju.

Khalid said...

Ecomarci: Thanks! I am really missing that camera in Nigeria. I could have been a little more discrete shooting with that one.

Esperanza!!!: Upon second though, I think you are right IT WAS JUJU. Juju answers many questions I have about the world.

James K said...

awesome light leak on the last image!

i've recently started shooting with an olympus xa2 after spending the last few years immersed in digital slrs. i completely agree that shooting with these type of film cameras forces you to think much more about your shots.

for me it moves the emphasis from (as you say) seeking the perfect exposure to getting the perfect subject/composition. I believe by working harder to better the latter I am developing my photography quicker than when i spent all my time shooting digital.

i love the Eric shot too by the way - awesome!

Khalid said...

Thanks for the compliment James. I am in Nigeria right now and I had to leave my Olympus XA behind.
With the omnipresent cell phone cameras here, it is not as easy to find film. I am really starting to miss the Olympus.
I will be back to film photography as soon as I get back.

Keep shooting!

peace

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